Supreme Court opens door to state-sanctioned sports betting

Posted by Josh Alper on May 14, 2018, 10:19 AM EDT

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Bettors who wanted to gamble on sports legally have long had limited options to do so in the United States, but that is about to change.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of New Jersey in the state’s challenge to the federal law known as The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The law barred states from legalizing gambling on sporting events with the notable exception of Nevada and less notable exceptions for sports lotteries in three other states.

The court’s ruling that the law is unconstitutional, which came by a 7-2 vote, sets the stage for states to start allowing gambling on sports. How that will be implemented from state to state remains to be seen, but the amount of money on the table will lead many of them to make risking a few bucks on your favorite team a fairly easy undertaking.

Professional sports leagues have expressed an interest in getting a cut of that action as well, although NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did not elaborate on the league’s plans for expanded sports betting in the United States when asked about it in March.

The NFL is against gambling, they proved that with mandated injury reports, fantasy football, putting a team in Vegas, and trying to put one in London. They won’t take this lying down – lying in every other way maybe, but not down.

MN just voted against this a few weeks ago. Mark it down here (@oldtakesexposed), MN will be the last state by years to allow this. Hell, we just started to be able to buy booze on Sundays…….So dumb………

About time. One less item on a long list of unnecessary prohibited activities our fine gov’t chooses to restrict on our behalf for questionable reasons. If this was truly a “free country” this headline would never have been necessary.

“Free citizens” should be granted to ability to engage in sports betting if they choose. It isn’t the responsibility of any American gov’t to prohibit activity that doesn’t harm anyone.

Be careful of what you wish for. I find sports much more enjoyable with making up ridiculous conspiracy theories on why the team I bet on didn’t show up to play on the day that I bet on them.

Somebody cheated. It wasn’t my fault. I’m not wrong, I only lost because….(enter something nefarious).

That could alienate sports. If I’ve learned anything in this post 911 America it’s that nobody is ever wrong. If you may be wrong deny it and double down. Vegas is going to make a killing because of the modern American mentality. Double down. I’m going to eventually win because I am right. Enjoy but remember that nobody is going to stop you but yourself.
Proceed with caution.

Can anyone please tell me (I’m being serious) – why exactly would the leagues have a stake in the cut of legalized gambling? If the govt says it’s legal to bet on games, why does the NFL, MLB, etc think they’re a part of that process? I hope the states tell these leagues to go pound sand.

It’s not like the NFL can declare that betting on their games isn’t allowable, just because they say so. It’s pure greed at this point.

Why should owners get anything from legalized gambling? Integrity fees? What nonsense!
States should just ignore the hands being held out. What could the NFL do? They will not stop playing games or otherwise be able to negatively impact the betting.

patsfan4lifesbchamps says:
May 14, 2018 at 10:55 am
Get ready for domestic violence, divorce cases to increase after people start to lose money. Gambling corrodes moral fabric of society.
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LOLOL. Are you joking? The only people who don’t gamble on sports solely because it’s illegal are NOT the type of people who are degenerates. The degenerates were already doing a fine job destroying their lives gambling illegally.

A lot of penalties will be thought of as fhelping to fix a game…..especially when during a replay of play shows nothing or is very questionable(,which happens alot)…..gotta see this new helmet lowering rule….

I’ve been able to do this for years in Canada. The sky hasn’t fallen, no increase in domestic violence, no increase in divorce cases. Gambling did not end up eroding our fabric of society.

You will see this in every state soon. Too much money to be made.

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This

I live in Michigan. I always found it ironic that the league was supposedly against gambling because it would affect the integrity of the league blah blah blah.

Meanwhile within a couple miles of Ford Field where the Lions play there is 3 Casino’s in the City limits of Detroit- one that is literally within walking distance. And then right over the border is Casino Windsor that has a sports book.

Hell, when Detroit hosted the Super Bowl, I would he skeptical that without including the Hotel rooms at the Detroit Casinos that there would be been enough hotel rooms to get the city over the required threshold for hosting a SB

Yeah, it will be awesome to place bets conveniently if I feel up to it and have the disposable income to play with, even though the only sports betting I’ve done heretofore has been friendly handshake wagers with friends/coworkers….but I know I’m savvy enough to make sound wagers in moderation.

However, what I’d REALLY like to do is have my own sportsbook. Yeah, smart money is always the house. Gonna talk to Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) next time he’s at my church…grease the skids a little, haha!

What should concern Americans is that the vote was 7-2 to overturn a law that was clearly unconstitutional. We have 2 supreme court justices who do not even feign interest in upholding the constitution which is their actual job. Notably they didn’t both to file a dissent and explain their reasons for ignoring the 10th amendment. Sad.